Durham, NH Local 2253 Secretary David Blatchford is the newest IAFF member to be honored with Liberty Mutual’s Firemark Award for his part in a successful three-year campaign to install the first automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in two University of New Hampshire sorority houses – Alpha Xi Delta and Alpha Phi.

Members of the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association (UPFFA) of Connecticut are always looking for new ways to be involved in the community, particularly when they can assist young cancer patients.

IAFF members in Ferguson, Missouri, and other communities surrounding North St. Louis County worked frantically in the days following the November 24 release of the grand jury decision. Emergency calls came in mere minutes after the announcement that Police Officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted, and fire fighters worked nonstop to respond to dozens of fires and other reported emergencies.

The IAFF is remembering the six members of Worcester, MA Local 1009 – Thomas Spencer, Paul Brotherton, Timothy Jackson, Jeremiah Lucey, James Lyons and Joseph McGuirk – who paid the ultimate sacrifice as they were fighting the multiple-alarm Worcester and Cold Storage Warehouse fire.

After a successful pink T-shirt fundraising campaign in October, Memphis, TN Local 1784 members donated proceeds totaling $12,000 to the Wings Cancer Foundation, a local charity assists families of cancer patients.

The sequence of events that led up to East Peoria, IL Local 1498 member Greg Underhill, recently diagnosed with ALS, receiving a van customized for a wheel chair can all be linked to one thing: the comradery among IAFF members.

It with regret and sadness that the IAFF announces the passing of Charlie Hall, who served as 12th District Vice President from 1968-1980. His service and sacrifices will forever be immortalized in the many fire service leaders he mentored and trained.

Flanked by members of the Uniformed Firefighters Association (UFA) Local 94 and Uniformed Fire Officers Association (UFOA) Local 854, as well as New York City Council members outside City Hall, Local 94 President Steve Cassidy called on the Council to do its part in fixing a critical problem with the fire and police disability pension.

Under a bright blue September sky, thousands of friends, family members, comrades and local spectators gathered at Memorial Park in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to pay solemn tribute to the IAFF members who gave their lives in service to their communities.

When the 9-1-1 call came in about a woman exhibiting Ebola-like symptoms in the parking lot of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, the Arlington Local 2800 fire fighters were fully prepared to respond.

Memphis, TN Local 1784 demonstrated its continued commitment to the community by donating $25,000 to the Firefighters Burn Center at Regional One Health. The Memphis Fire Fighters Association (MFFA) Foundation contributes 100 percent of the proceeds from its annual golf tournament. This year was a record-setting year, thanks to the support of Nationwide Insurance and its participants.

Franklin Township, OH Local 1441 President Ron Delozier plans to run 35 miles on November 4 to remind and encourage voters to vote yes on Issue 35, a fire levy that will raise the money needed to fund the Franklin Township Fire Department and prevent the layoffs of six to 12 fire fighters.

At the D.C. Fire and EMS Department Training Academy in Southwest Washington on Saturday, a few dozen people, many with soot-smeared faces, milled about waiting for the smoke from a cinderblock building to clear. The crowd, mostly civilian volunteers, spent the morning storming smoking stairwells and peeling roofs off cars under the supervision of professionals. But the most fearsome mock adversary of the day was still to come. It was not a five-alarm fire, but Ebola. The Ebola response demonstration was the finale of Fire Ops 101, an event the International Association of Fire Fighters, a union that represents more than 300,000 firefighters and emergency medical technicians, organizes nationwide. It is mostly for the benefit of lawmakers, to help them appreciate the perils that first responders face.